What of Indo Sakas and Parthians? Not much evidence is left but Parthians minted coins in Greek and it's basically their official language?
What of Indo Sakas and Parthians? Not much evidence is left but Parthians minted coins in Greek and it's basically their official language?
Interesting points were made by several posters based on their different interpretation of the term "Hellenistic". In my opinion states regardless of the ethnicities of their rulers can be considered Hellenistic if they are heavily influenced by Hellenic culture and, very importantly, are administered in Greek. There can be a lot of non-Greek cultural and religious influences fused in those states, however those influences have to be interpreted in Hellenic way, ie. Interpretatio Graeca when it comes to religious influences.
The Parthian and Kushan empires did use Greek as a co-official language directed primarily towards Greek merchants and colonists while their court life appears to me un-Hellenistic.
The amount of Greek and hellenized population also played a significant role, The Indo-Parthians were more Hellenistic than the western ones, while Kushans were the most.
The last Hellenistic state in my humble opinion would be the Bosporan Kingdom, while it's rulers were Iranian and hand such names, in addition to being named Julius Tiberius since they were also Roman citizens, do not appear to have been using or communicating diplomatically in any other language apart Greek most of their urban populace were Greeks as well, their architecture and, I suppose clothing, although it's highly likely that they did wear pants, at least the Iranian elites.
Last edited by Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σω March 23, 2019 at 01:07 PM.
"First get your facts straight, then distort them at your leisure." - Mark Twain
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That's a good point, one I hadn't really considered. Kimmerios Bosporos was a Roman client state with mixed Greek-Iranian leadership, even semi-nomadic in some cases like the surrounding Scythians and Sarmatians, but you're right about the Hellenistic Greek culture of their royal court and population at large. They maintained Greek poleis just like Greece as well. In terms of their genetics and ancestry, the rulers were also a surprising mix, directly descended in part from Roman triumvir Mark Antony, King Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus, and various royal figures of the Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace. Bosporan King Tiberius Julius Sauromates II, a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Varus, had a stylish stoic style beard like the latter two, but he wore his long blond hair down like a Scythian would do (or just 1980s hair metal bands with perms, lol).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...romates_II.jpg